Thursday, June 26, 2008

TOUR DE CURE IS COMING TO SOUTH FLORIDAI just spent an hour yesterday with Katie Hawken, the Manager of the south Florida American Diabetes Association. She saw my Bike Diva blog and asked if I could meet with her to talk about starting a charity bike ride, to benefit the society, in the south Florida area.

TOUR DE CURE IN BROWARD COUNTYThe American Diabetes Society is trying to bring a Tour de Cure ride down to the south Florida area next year. Right now they are looking at the first weekend in March. But Katie will let me know when she has a definite date. The other locations of the Tour de Cure in Florida are Tampa, Jacksonville, Orlando and Sarasota. They are looking to start the south Florida ride somewhere in Broward County, that way they hope to attract riders from the Miami/Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County areas.

Katie is looking for feedback/ideas from cyclists familiar with biking in the south Florida area. Once she has a tentative route for the ride mapped out, she is looking for a few cyclists to actually go out and ride the route, or at least part of it, to let her know if it is a good or bad route to ride.

Rob and I were thinking about doing the Tour de Cure in Orlando for the past two years, but just never made it up there. I’m not sure of the exact miles, but I was just looking at the Sarasota Tour de Cure which has 100, 62, 35 and 15 mile options. Fund raising minimum is $150 per person. Proceeds benefit the American Diabetes Association. You can register for the ride as an individual or form a team.

DIABETES PREVENTIONI had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with my daughter which puts me at risk for getting adult onset diabetes. Both my sister-in-law and father-in-law have diabetes. So I will definitely be doing this ride in order to support the American Diabetes Association. The societies mission is “to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes.”

VOLUNTEERS NEEDEDKatie is also looking for volunteers that would like to be part of the committee that will actually be planning the ride. The American Diabetes Association is a non-profit organization and needs all the help they can get to help make this a really terrific ride. You can contact Katie my emailing her at khawken@diabetes.org.